UW-Eau Claire sets you up with opportunities for the rest of your life — a good career, experience within a field and a cultural experience to take with you in your future.

But I don’t think that people really consider all the specific opportunities that attending a UW System school presents. A library full of books (from all 26 campuses), discounts on many stores at the mall and FREE daily newspapers.

I know you are thinking of your grandpa lecturing you on how the Internet is spoiling us and how no one is updated on current events anymore. What I am trying to express to you is the money you are wasting by not taking advantage of the Collegiate Readership Program!

USA TODAY, The New York Times and The Leader-Telegram are offered daily in every academic building and residence hall on campus. This program is enacted across the country and at most of the system schools.

According to Student Senate records, the program costs around $4 per student, each year, to support. That’s less than a Sunday copy of The New York Times at Starbucks.

For the record, The Spectator is on stands for free every Thursday also!

Student Senate directed $35,000 this year towards the Readership Program, according to their yearly budget. That is a significant amount of money but I think that it is worth every penny.

Even if you read the news online, The Leader-Telegram and The New York Times only allow you a certain
amount of reads per month! This program gives you as many copies as you want!

The program works because Student Senate only pays for the copies that are picked up from each machine — you know, those big blue bins located in heavy traffic areas of buildings — by using your Blugold card.

If you forget your card, ask ANYBODY. Each person has a limitless amount of swipes each day.

The copies that aren’t taken each day are sent back with USA TODAY, who is the coordinator of the program. The lost money from the unsold absorbed by the provider. Literally a win-win situation for students!

You pay $4 for unlimited newspapers. People, appreciate it. Take advantage of it!

Even if you aren’t big on reading the newspaper, consider picking up USA TODAY purely for the sports section or the entertainment section.

I’m not trying to tell you what to do and I’m certainly not trying to force the magical, entertaining yet informing field of journalism down your throats. I’m just trying to explain something that, as a student, you should be paying attention to.

I hear students complaining about money on a daily basis. ‘I have to work. Boo hoo.’ ‘I don’t have money for anything.’ ‘My student loans are the worst.’

If you are actually concerned about where your money is going, step 1: Be informed on where it is being spent and step 2: Actually spend the money that is being taken from you.

I could get all cheesy (again) and say this directly relates back to attending classes, asking questions, using resources, whatever. Everyone knows it. Everyone talks about it.